January, 2018

Within ‘spittin’ distance of his $12,000 monoblocks

“PS Audio has been on a roll. That roll continues with the Stellar M700 power amplifier. I have had nothing but good experience with PS Audio products; still, with the Stellar M700, my expectations were exceeded. Having little sound of its own, the M700 delivered well-balanced reproduction that was always faithful to the music… the Stellar M700s came ever so close to matching the sound of my high-end reference monoblocks, Theta Digital’s Prometheuses—which are ranked Class A in “Recommended Components” and, at $12,000/pair, cost four times as much as the PS Audios. The Stellar M700 is an outstanding bargain.”

High praise indeed and you can read the full version of this review by clicking here.

The Stellar series of high-performance amps, preamp and DAC are our first level audio products and the best under $2K products our company has ever produced in its more than 40-year history. But don’t take the reviewer’s word for it, (he bought the pair) take a set home yourself. Our generous trade-up policy buys back your tired equipment at up to full retail and our in-home trial period offers a chance to live and compare the two for a month without ever any risk. We even pay shipping costs both ways.

Before Infinity Speaker founder Arnie Nudell’s unfortunate passing, he and I were working on a new concept in loudspeakers, one based on the idea that it just might be possible to get closer to live orchestral sound levels than we have in the past.

A full orchestra can hit peak levels as high as 120dB where the conductor stands. Arnie and I had become convinced this was the one quality still missing in speakers. Not for their lack of loudness, but headroom. Might it be possible to achieve these peak extremes without distortion, coloration, mega-amplifiers and bankruptcy court?

That is our challenge. Before his passing, he had made some good progress in a prototype he referred to as the IRS Killer. And it was. It may yet be possible to complete the dream.

Can Class D amplifiers ever sound as good or even exceed the performance and sound quality of more traditional Class A/B or Class A amplifiers. Find out when Paul launches into this controversial subject. You might be surprised at the answer. And, have you signed up for our YouTube channel?

Don’t miss a video; sign up to our YouTube Channel here and watch a daily video from Paul as he answers your questions on high-performance audio.

“In 1926 Nathaniel Adams Cole was 7 years old and US Route 66 was established as a part of the US Highway System. I don’t have to go into where it started and where it went because that lore is as American as a Moon Pie. The most iconic roadway in our country was completely paved when Cole was 19 and it spawned motels, roadside attractions, saloons, diners and complete towns as quick as you can spell entrypenuer..um entrepruner..uh huckster.”

Find great stories like this on the life of Nat King Cole from WL Woodward in Copper Magazine, the world’s most interesting free publication.

Copper is cost-free, ad-free, and committed to great articles without an attitude.

“Streaming has become the primary way we listen to music: in 2016, streaming surpassed both physical media and digital downloads as the largest source of recorded music sales. There are plenty of valid complaints about a music world dominated by streaming. Among the many arguments musicians level against Spotify, for example, one typically repeated is that the artist is the only link in the food chain getting the proverbial shaft. This argument is often predicated on notions of economics, intellectual property and ethics. Missing from a larger discussion is the radical idea that maybe it is the consumers who are being done the greatest disservice, and that this access-bonanza may be cheapening the listening experience by transforming fans into file clerks and experts into dilettantes.”

“Most people listen to music in the way that’s convenient for them; they ignore the high-end stuff, if they’ve even heard of it, as an expensive fetish. But audiophiles are restless; they always have some sort of dream system in their heads. They are ready, if they can afford it, to swap, trade, buy. It’s not enough, for some listeners, to have a good turntable, CD player, streaming box, pre-amplifier, amplifier, phono stage, speakers, and top-shelf wires connecting them all together. No, they also need a power conditioner—to purify the A.C. current. Does it matter, each separate thing? The cables, too? Is it all nonsense? The debates rage on, for those who are interested. At the moment, the hottest thing in audio is “high-resolution streaming”—the hope, half-realized, of getting extraordinary sound through the Internet.”

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